No Doubt fans certainly remember the music video for the 1996 hit "Don't Speak."
In it the band gets sad when the lead singer of the band is intentionally separated by a music video director and a magazine's art director, so that the girl-next-door front woman of the group can be spotlit as the glammed-up solo star.
The song came just four years after the Orange County band's debut album, but it was clear that despite how hard No Doubt was committed to remain a solid unit, and as beloved as Tony, Tom, and Adrian were, Gwen Renée Stefani is a once-in-a-generation talent, far bigger than any radio-friendly pop band.
It was her destiny to go solo as the 1.1 billion-viewed video prophesied.
By 2004, No Doubt had already sold 16 million albums, more than half of those coming from their smash sophomore LP, Tragic Kingdom which contained "Don't Speak," along with "Just A Girl," "Sunday Morning," and several other hits.
The two album's that followed Tragic Kingdom also contained a few gems, but the album sales for Return of Saturn (2000) and Rock Steady (2001) were just 1.3 million and 3 million, respectively.
Surely there were those who were whispering in her ear that No Doubt was not trending upward, but she was.
In 2000, her feature on Moby's "Southside" skyrocketed to #14 on the Billboard singles chart, giving the bald DJ his biggest hit.
Then the following year she teamed up with rapper Eve on "Let Me Blow Ya Mind." Not only did the track peak at #2 but it brought home Gwen's first Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.
Even though 2001's Rock Steady yielded two Grammys for the band in 2003 as well as three Top 20 singles, by 2004 Gwen was 35 years old, had fronted No Doubt for 18 years, and was a regular face on magazine covers like: Cosmo, Allure, Rolling Stone, V, Seventeen, Marie Claire, and Harper's Bazaar.
To fulfill the inevitable, It was time for her to dig deep into her girlie phase for a little while.
What an amazing time
What a family
How did the years go by?
Now it's only me
4 Non Blondes singer/songwriter Linda Perry co-wrote "What You Waiting For," and said Gwen was reluctant to do the solo thing after being part of a well-oiled machine for so long. But eventually it worked out.
Indeed, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. far surpassed all but one No Doubt album in sales.
And by 2008, her L.A.M.B. clothing line, at just five years old, grossed over $100 million. People wanted to look like her, dance like her, and buy everything she was selling.
It started 20 years ago today, on Total Request Live, MTV's highest rated Top 40 show. And she did it not with "Hollaback Girl," but with her second-most sung solo tune, the one where she admitted, "now it's only me."
Gwen got what she asked for, a solo career that started off with a bang. She got to do things that wouldn't have fit with No Doubt and music video directors and the like were finally able to have her in every frame of every scene and not have to appease the boys in the band.
Some say No Doubt never broke up, that Gwen just needed some time to experiment on her own, but the band didn't put out a new record until Push and Shove in 2012, which would be their final to date.
Meanwhile even though Gwen had decent success with her second solo offering, 2006's Sweet Escape, going triple platinum and peaking at #3, it might have been a little too-sticky sweet, yielding just two Top 10 singles.
Her 2016 album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like: was Gwen's first #1 LP ever, even with No Doubt, it didn't have the legs of her others and petered out quickly.
So was it worth it? In 20 years she had two big solo albums, several tours, and a giant clothing line. No Doubt was able to roll out one new record and one real tour in 2009.
Not that Gwen has to prove anything to anyone, people should be allowed to take their career wherever they want and follow their muse even if it sends them on a different path than the ones they started out with.
But, if her forthcoming solo LP, Bouquet, is an enormous hit, then maybe it was all worth it.
Her fifth solo record drops this Friday and even though the lead single is "Purple Irises," a romantic duet with her husband, Blake Shelton, Gwen has been clear that Bouquet is not a country album but an amalgam of '70s pop-rock music she grew up listening to that includes her love of Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.
Strangely there are no live dates lined up for Gwen once the album is rolled out, but you can sign up for her email list on her website.
